Wind turbines extract power from the wind to generate electrical power. The aerodynamic power in the wind is changed using one or more blades into rotational power that drives a generator. To maximize the energy extracted during an entire year of operation at a particular site, the generator's maximum power level is chosen well below the value of the aerodynamic power associated with the maximum wind velocity expected at the site. The wind speed at which the extracted rotational power matches the maximum generator power is called the rated speed of the wind turbine.
Since the rated speed is well below the maximum wind speed at the site, it follows that there are many time periods during which the available aerodynamic power is greater than the generator's maximum power level. Accordingly, wind turbines are provided with a means for extracting a controllable and selectable amount of rotational power from the available aerodynamic power. Most typical in the art are means that change the aerodynamic angle of attack of the blade, said means comprising rotationally attaching the blade to a turbine hub, so as to allow rotation about a pitch axis running essentially along the span of the blade, and a blade-pitch actuator for rotationally moving the blade by a commanded blade pitch angle about the pitch axis, thereby changing the orientation of the blade with respect to the hub, and with respect to the incoming wind.
The commanded blade pitch angle is computed by the turbine central control unit. To achieve acceptable operational safety, the motion of the blade pitch angle must be done using closed-loop control, wherein the blade pitch angle is measured independently of the blade-pitch actuator and the measured angular value reported to the turbine central control unit, along with the rotational speed of the hub. The measurement of the blade pitch angle, with respect to the hub, is done via electro-mechanical encoders driven by the blade motion. Due to operational safety requirements, the turbine cannot be operated and must be shut down when the turbine central controller looses the ability to track the blade pitch angle of any of the blades used by the wind turbine.
Mechanical pitch-angle encoders suffer from several shortcomings. One such shortcoming is susceptibility to mechanical failures in the drive connecting the blade's body to the internal workings of the encoder. A second shortcoming is the loss of accuracy due to abrasion and wear in said drive. A third shortcoming is the loss of accuracy when the encoder and drive are misaligned following a service technician mistakenly stepping on the unit during servicing. It is thus, desirable to have a measuring system for measuring at least the blade pitch-angle of the blade, the measuring system being built such that is free of mechanical failure, wear and tear. It is furthermore desirable to have said measuring system additionally measure the hub's rotational speed, and most desirable to have said measuring system additionally measuring the blade's azimuthal angular rotation from a predetermined blade azimuthal position.
The rotational position and velocity of the hub can be measured using the combination of an accelerometer and a gyroscope. The gyroscope provides a measure of the rotational rate, and integration in time of the gyroscope signal provides a measure of the rotor angular position. However, small rate errors in the measurement of the rotational rate are unavoidable in practice, so that the computed rotor angular position includes an ever increasing error in time due to the continued accumulation of the small rate errors in the integration process. To bound this accumulation of errors, it is well known in the art of inertial motion sensors to combine the signals of a gyroscope with those of an accelerometer.
EP-A 1835,293 describe a wind turbine and a method of determining at least one rotation parameter of a wind turbine rotor, wherein an accelerometer bounds the error of the rotor angular position when the angular position is calculated by integrating in time the signal from a gyroscope.
DE-A 102007030 shows a method for indirect determining of dynamic values of a wind- or water turbine using any measuring sensors. An accelerometer is also used to measure forces present in the wind turbine and use the measured forces to detect the rotational rate of the wind turbine.
The two known methods use the presence of gravitational acceleration in the measured signal to provide a ground-fixed reference frame against which the rotational rate of the hub can be determined. The computational method fundamentally depends on the identification of gravity in the accelerometer signals. The gravity signal produces a sinusoidal signal that varies with the rotor azimuthal angle, hence the signal displays a periodicity with period equal to the time the rotor takes to complete one revolution. Accordingly, at least a full period is needed to determine the phase of the gravity sinusoidal signal, via peak-and-through detection or equivalent method, with usable accuracy. Consequently, the computation of the rotor speed is a time-delayed, or time averaged, quantity and not an instantaneous measurement.
What is desired is a method to measure the pitch-angle of a wind-turbine blade that is free of electro-mechanical encoders, and that, furthermore, can provide an instantaneously accurate measurement of pitch-angle, and that, furthermore, the measurement is free drift and similar errors due to the accumulation in time of measurement inaccuracies or errors.
Therefore it is an objective of the invention to provide a measuring system for determining at least the pitch angle of at least one blade relative to the turbine hub. It is a further objective of the present invention to provide a measuring system for determining the blade pitch angle that is free from the accumulation of errors due to time integration of a time-varying signal. It is a further objective of the present invention to provide a measuring system for determining the rotational speed of the hub. It is a further objective of the present invention to provide a measuring system for determining the azimuthal angular position of the hub relative to a predetermined orientation. It is a further objective of the present invention to provide an improved wind turbine having a measuring system measuring at least the pitch angle of at least one blade relative to the turbine hub.
The mentioned objectives are solved by a pitch-angle measuring system for a wind turbine and a method of determining the pitch angle of at least one blade relative to the turbine. Various aspects, advantages and features of the invention are apparent from the dependent claims and the accompanying drawings.